​​​“There is an old Navajo warning that if you kill off the prairie dogs there will be no one to cry for rain … In fact, the burrowing animals, like prairie dogs, open breathing tubes in the Earth. The underground aquifers act like the diaphragm in human bodies; the moon as it passes raises and lowers the underground water table and the Earth breathes through the many fissures and tubes opened by the burrowing creatures. The exhalation of moisture-ladened air, filled with negative ions, helps create rain.”

​- Stephen Harrod Buhner​

Prairie Dogs: Coral Reefs of the Prairies

Prairie dogs are the keystone species of the prairies and are the main indicators of a healthy prairie community. More than 200 different species have been associated with prairie dog towns, with over 140 species benefiting directly including buffalo, pocket mice, deer mice, ants, antelope, golden eagles, black widow spiders, badgers, foxes, coyotes, weasels, horned larks, rattlesnakes, ferruginous hawks, burrowing owls and the black-footed ferret whom cannot live without large contiguous prairie dog colonies. Prairie dogs hold the native prairies together: Their disappearance from the grasslands creates a landscape scale loss of various plants, wildlife and climatic conditions necessary for the health of our planet. Prairies of the West are fast disappearing along with the diverse plant and wildlife communities that hold this fragile habitat together. Currently, less than 1% of prairie dogs and their habitats remain in the West.